If an infinite number of monkeys are given typewriters
for an infinite time, would they eventually produce the complete works of
Shakespeare? Judging by the responses of some philosophers and mathematicians,
the answer is yes. However, it was only in 2002 that a practical experiment
was carried out to gain a real-world insight into the question.

Of course, the experiment did not involve an infinite number of monkeys
– there were only six! And they shared one typewriter, or rather,
a keyboard linked to a computer. When a key was struck, something happened
on the screen, and this was reported as helping to sustain interest in the
monkeys.

Paignton Zoo Environmental Park, Devon, was the scene for the project.
The monkeys were Sulawesi Crested Macaques with the names Elmo, Gum, Heather,
Holly, Mistletoe and Rowan. The computer was protected by a Perspex box
with holes through which the keys could be touched. Part-funding was provided
by the Arts Council of England (strictly speaking, this was a “performance”
rather than an experiment).

After
six months of opportunity, the monkeys had produced six pages of text. All
those calculations based on monkeys typing two letters a second were revealed
to be widely astray!

Nevertheless, with six pages filled with letters, surely some words would
be produced? With so many words to choose from, something recognisable might
be expected to emerge. One problem was the lack of use of the space bar
– strings of characters without spaces will never be meaningful. However,
I did detect the letters “mass” hidden within one long string.
Does this count as a positive result?

The most important lessons related to the concept of randomness. Most definitely,
the letters were not typed randomly. According to Mike Phillips, who runs
the Institute of Digital Arts and Technology at Plymouth University, “They
pressed a lot of S’s. Obviously English isn’t their first language”
(Yahoo News, 2003). Next in popularity were A, J, L and M. Randomness was
notably absent.

The monkeys did not seem to enter into the spirit of the exercise. The
lead male picked up a stone and started bashing the keyboard. All of the
monkeys could be found sitting on the computer. “Another thing they
were interested in was in defecating and urinating all over the keyboard”
said Mike Phillips.

The web site reporting the exercise says: “The project is clearly
not a scientific experiment, but hopefully does display some sense of integrity.
Although it appears to test the truth of the formula, in reality it emphasises
the unreliability of human (scientific) hypotheses. Animals are not simply
metaphors for human endeavour.”

The origin of the typing monkeys metaphor goes back to Arthur Eddington’s
Gifford Lectures of 1927.

“... If I let my fingers wander idly over the keys
of a typewriter it might happen that my screed made an intelligible sentence.
If an army of monkeys were strumming on typewriters they might write all
the books in the British Museum.”

How this quote was embellished (or simplified!) to “reproduce the
entire works of Shakespeare” has yet to be properly documented. Nevertheless,
the metaphor has entered the popular mind and has certainly influenced generations
of people. The message conveyed is that given enough time, any chance event
is possible.

We can be thankful to the macaques of Paignton Zoo for reminding us that
whilst “randomness” exists in the minds of mathematicians and
philosophers, we must be very careful before thinking it actually exists
anywhere else. Real world systems rarely conform exactly to our predetermined
ideas and mathematical analysis. This is true of the roulette wheels of
Monte Carlo as well as anything else that we like to think of as random.

The favoured application of the typewriter metaphor is the origin of life
through chemical evolution. ‘Give a primordial soup enough time, and
living reproducing cells will emerge’. However, the macaques’
performance should help us to see the flaws in this evolutionary story.
Give a mixture of chemicals enough time, and it will reach … a state
of equilibrium!